Are you comfortable?

January 25.  We are over 3 weeks into 2016 and I'll bet it is a safe wager that most people have already forgotten what resolutions they made just a few short weeks ago. Oh there may be some of you that are actually sticking with your "new year, new you" workout and eating routines and perhaps a few actually have done all that organizing and tidying up that we see tips for in nearly every January magazine.  I didn't make any huge change resolutions this year, though I did set goals.  I like to reflect on how things are going, that kind of goes along with setting goals. It does no good to write those goals down, then just hope they will all come to pass.

I'm going to do something uncomfortable today.  It may be something as simple as actually loading another box of things to take to the thrift store (I have been in my decluttering and simplifying journey for nearly a year) or it may be something that is extremely out of my comfort zone like taking some next  new steps in my direct sales business.  Each box or bag of stuff that I remove from the house makes me feel good!  I have room for the things that I really love and I'm finding that as the paper and junk piles go down my angst about clutter decreases.  As for the business part? I made the decision to pursue this.  Direct selling is greatly misunderstood by many people, but it is one of the fastest growing lines of work in the world.  This method of selling goods, directly from distributor to customer, has been around awhile, but in order to succeed it takes work, just like any other job. I am finding that I have to do the hard stuff!  I also have discovered that some of those tasks that are the hardest to get started on, the ones that make me squirm a bit, are the most rewarding. Should I  ask the easy question "Would you like to have a party?" or the harder one "How are things with you? Can we have a cup of coffee and catch up?"  Making the time to listen to people and learn what is going on in their lives is the first step in building a great relationship that lasts. 

Since I do so much of my business online I stalk Facebook a lot.  It is evident that I am no different than most of the people I come in contact with. We nearly all are concerned about money, health, family relationships and a good measure of worry about the future.  None of that is new.  In a heart wrenching conversation last week with someone I love we talked about faith.  I truly believe that I have a strong measure of faith, in God and in what is to come.  However, I was challenged "Do you really?  You say that you have faith to step out in belief, but do you - really?"  I have thought about that conversation all week.  Then this morning in one of my favorite devotional books I read these words written so very long ago by Oswald Chambers:

As servants of God, we must learn to make room for Him - to give God "elbow room". We plan and figure and predict that this or that will happen, but we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses.  Would we be surprised if God came to our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never expected Him to come? Do not look for God to come in a particular way, but do look for Him. The way to look for Him is to expect Him to come, but not in a certain way. No matter how well we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that He may break in at any minute. We tend to overlook this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. Suddenly - God meets our life - ".....when it pleased God....."   Keep your life so  constantly in touch with God that His surprising power can break through at any point. Live in a constant state of expectancy, and leave room for God to come in as He decides.   ( January 25- from My Utmost For His Highest ).

No matter what your faith background or where you are on your journey with God (if you have chosen that path) live expectantly today.  Do something uncomfortable and believe that the unexpected is going to bless you beyond measure.  Be all that you can be, today and every day!  I'm going to step out and I'm going to pray that God breaks through in a magnificent way today!

Who are you?

Today is a special day - it is my sister's birthday!  We love birthdays in our family, at least we did growing up.  Back in the day our Dad would have flowers delivered to us at school on our birthday.  It was so exciting when the school office assistant would come to the classroom door and deliver a vase with a flower or two in it from Gordon Hill Nursery and a note with my name on it. Such was life growing up in a small town in the 1960s.  We also got to choose the menu on our birthday for dinner.  This was a special treat of mine, because the meal didn't have to be perfectly balanced, with all of the right colors on the plate and I ALWAYS eliminated salad from my birthday menu. On very special years, if things were going well in our parent's business, we actually got to go out to a restaurant, now that was a special treat!

I am amazed at how many people, particularly women, that refuse to state their age.  I have never been one to be upset at the age that I am, I'm thankful that I'm still here.  I do have other weird and quirky things about age and years though - like I don't care for odd numbered years.  I find that interesting because I was born in an odd numbered year (1957). I started thinking about this about 20 years ago.  In one of my journals I made some lists of events in my life that happened in odd numbered years, versus even numbered years.  I've never been too concerned about the age I am, it was more about the year. I don't set out each year expecting that it will be more good or bad, since I look at every year I am alive as a gift.  I do more reflecting, and looking back. In the course of my life the odd numbered years have held more difficulty for me than the even.  There are exceptions, yet it is interesting to me to look at patterns.  Once I started noticing those patterns I chose to try and reverse them - to make each year more 'good' than 'bad'. 

Once I get my mind thinking on something I may ponder it for days!  Why do people not want to state their age? Why is being 30, 45, 50 or 65 something to be ashamed or embarrassed about?  It is just a number.  I have known men and women that actually will go to great lengths to not reveal their age, I'm sure you have too.  I always want to ask them why, what is the big deal?  This isn't something that is new to me, I remember when I was in my 20s and my friends started turning 30 - you would have thought it was the end of the world!  

2015 was an interesting one for me, in regards to age, for another reason.  My Dad was 58 when he died in 1980.   2015 was the year I turned 58.  I spent the entire year thinking about how young he was, all of the things he missed.  He basically was not here, other than in my heart, for my adulthood.  I also thought a lot about my Mom last year.  We marked the 5 year anniversary of her passing.  She lived to be 87.  My mother was vibrant, hard working and very much a lady.  She worked well into her 70s - she was talented and smart and though we clashed in our personalities, sometimes with loud bangs, I admired her.  Her last few years of life she was a shell of herself. Suffering from Parkinson's and related dementia she was silent and relied on others for her care.  It happened so quickly, it seemed one day she was busy with her social groups, enjoying our family events and the next she was immobile.  

All of us, God willing, will have a birthday anniversary this year.  Chances are though, that someone reading this will not.  Illness, accidents and unexpected natural catastrophes take lives.   As I started my new journal for 2016 (yay, an even numbered year!) my focus is to NOT focus on that fact, the even number, but to do my best to be appreciative of each day. I wrote a few days ago that my word of the year is enough.  I want 2016 to be enough in every way: enough time with friends and family. Enough time to relax and appreciate how very blessed I am and not focus on what is lacking.  I want to celebrate birthdays with friends and sit around campfires in new places.  I want to create warm knitted items, then travel somewhere cold to wear them!  I want to cook good food then sit down with family and friends to enjoy it together.  I want enough.

Celebrate your birthday anniversary!  Rejoice in each year, the good and the not so good. They have made you the person you are today.  Then look around you and tell the people in your life why they are important to you too.  We all make a wonderful patchwork quilt of life. One of my goals for 2016 is to do just that, tell the people that are important to me that they ARE, important and I love them, because they are part of my stitched together life quilt and without them I wouldn't be the same.